Tucker Carlson urges Americans to stop paying credit cards

Tucker Carlson told hacker Ryan Montgomery that people should stop paying credit card balances, arguing predatory lenders go after debt holders—while warning that his own stance is rooted in privilege and that ignoring payments can trigger fees, lawsuits, and

On Monday, Tucker Carlson didn’t just complain about credit card debt—he suggested Americans should stop paying it.

The comments came during a joint episode of both Carlson’s show and hacker Ryan Montgomery’s. where a conversation about digital security and a mega-data breach quickly veered into Carlson’s “eccentric resentments.” He said his hatred for predatory money lenders runs so deep that. in his view. borrowers should simply halt payments.

Carlson began by explaining why he personally refuses to carry even a single dollar of debt. “I think in my business where you like make people mad, if you have debt, boy, they you know, they go after it,” he told Montgomery.

Montgomery. for his part. said he tries to follow a “don’t spend money you don’t have” philosophy—then acknowledged Carlson’s disagreement. Carlson came in with the blunt pivot. “I used to feel that way. Now I’m kind of like, I don’t know,” he said. “I think people should stop paying their credit cards. I know no one else agrees with me, and ‘Oh, you have a moral obligation.’ Really?”.

To Carlson, the moral argument didn’t hold up. He described credit cards as a system that targets people who have little leverage, and he offered a blunt analogy. “Well, you have a moral obligation not to send credit card applications to college kids. So this goes both ways.”

Then came the sharper comparison. “It’s like just blaming the drug addict and never mentioning the dealer. Someone’s selling the fentanyl and that person is on the hook, too,” Carlson said. “So, like, is it a sin to rip off your drug dealer? I guess it’s not one I’m going to judge you for.”

Carlson also admitted the position is easier when you don’t owe. He said he is in a “very privileged position not to owe anyone anything,” even as he insisted others should rethink their own obligations.

But his advice lands in a world of consequences that are hard to ignore. Brushing off credit card balances typically leads to late fees, higher interest, and plummeting credit scores. If payments are delayed long enough. the debt can be sent to a collection agency. which can sue a borrower—potentially resulting in wage garnishment or direct bank withdrawals.

The scale of the problem is not small. Consumer credit report company TransUnion says the average American holds about $6,715 in credit card debt. Across the U.S., credit card debt totaled up to $1.28 trillion at the end of 2025, according to data from the New York Federal Reserve.

Carlson’s resentment wasn’t theoretical. Earlier in the conversation, he recalled giving a speech to payday loan lenders more than two decades ago. He said while they were “amusing,” they were also “the sleaziest group of people I’ve ever met in my life.”

Montgomery agreed with the core sentiment. “I have no doubt, I don’t know how they sleep at night,” he said.

Tucker Carlson Ryan Montgomery credit card debt payday loans debt collection wage garnishment New York Federal Reserve TransUnion United States politics